Februay Family Update 2013

Tana, I loooved that email!!!! Send more! And your run on sentence was awesome!! You write just like you talk.

Chris tried to go shoot the Timp/Cascade mountain range last night from Saratoga Springs. He walked down to the lake and practically had to swim through a thick stand of reeds sinking down to his thighs with each step carrying about 30 pounds of camera equipment. He came to a bog of a warm spring and got stuck for several minutes. He thought he'd have to call search and rescue. Since it turned out alright, I'm laughing as I write this.

Chris wants to start a new landscape photgraphy business, we need a name, anyone?

I feel like I spend the bulk of my time trying to keep my house like Lisa Carlson does. It's not working. Here it is almost noon and my bed isn't even made.

Morgan and Madison are enjoying Snow and enjoying living with Kari and Ladd (although I think they can count on one hand the amount of conversations they've really had with Ladd :).

Bridger is busy working and dancing, learning sign language and Russian and every other spare moment is spent watching dance videos on line.

Landon does "school" three hours each morning faithfully. He wouldn't start a movie last night at nine since he wants to be up by seven. He has a growing list of books he's read since he starte this a few months ago.

Cade and Sarah play a lot together, a lot of the time with Isaac since they are all home during the day. The spent yesterday, one of the coldest days we've had for a while, building a fort in the back yard.

Our baby Liam Jack is sitting up, has two teeth and is the center of attention at every moment. I need to read up on not spoiling the youngest. He also loves french onion soup and sweet potatoes. He's not sure about avacados though.

Kirsten

So I want in on the sharing although I have know real news. Codey is back
> > to 40 hours a week well since the start of the year. But has worked a
> > couple of Saturdays. It is strange to have him home on Sat. and I feel as
> > if I have to entertain him or give his jobs with the kids just to keep
> > everyone busy. I am still struggling with giving sharing time in Primary
> > but the last time I did it went over pretty well. I spend a lot of time
> > in the car as I go back and forth to PG to take the kids to school and
> > back. I need to get some books on CD or something. And I think the
> > laundry will never end. I don't believe it when anyone says that I will
> > miss it some day as I am very sure I will not. Colton Is pretty existed
> > that Soccer starts soon, and is loving taking guitar at school (thanks
> > to Johnnie letting him borrow his guitar) He also spends a lot of time
> > playing basketball, reading and playing on his IPod. Hailey is always
> > helping me and has been doing a lot of pre-school for Laike and Crew,
> > she is teaching Laike his letters and he can finely count to 10 and say
> > the ABC"s She also spends lots of time playing with a couple of girls in
> > the ward and can't wait for spring. Peyton is hoping to play spring
> > soccer and if not then machine pitch it will be. He is doing awesome in
> > school and is missing his PG friends. Laike is getting to know some of
> > the little boys hid age and loves to be outside. He still asks when we
> > can go back to our little house and go play with his fun friends. Crew
> > is just as cute as can be and I love having him around me all day. He
> > says the cutest things and is becoming quite the story teller, mostly
> > about all the deer we have around our house. Cash is still the
> > complainer he has always been. And still whines most of the day, he has
> > never been a good sleeper either I thought if I stopped nursing him he
> > would sleep through the night since all the other kids did, but NO, now
> > we wakes up crying and I end up holding him all night. So Tana was way
> > more fun to here about and Kirsten to but life goes on. Love ya all.
> > Gretchen From:

Christopher Barksdale: Landscape Photography

I know. I'm always glad when I make the bed first thing.

What is Landon reading, mainly? Or is he omnivorous? Let me know if he needs any suggestions, although I'm sure he's finding stuff that he really enjoys. I remember having my "study list" during my wholly homeschooled year. I finished the big book of activities the first week and then started riding my bike to the library and/or the REC center a couple of times a week (that year we had the REC pass). One of the ladies who remembered me from that year still worked at the library when I started, but retired a year or so later.

Phia's been building a fort in the front yard, but it's pretty much dead now from the melting and freezing.

I don't think you guys are capable of spoiling a child.

Yeah, Gretchen, I'm still not used to having John around. It's been 2 1/2 years now that he's not working dawn to dusk, M-F, so it's weird. And with the sequester, he might be around more.

I love listening to books on CD. Although I'm usually too lazy and just listen to the radio. Is Colton doing chords, strings, or both? He and Gabe can jam next summer.

Ha, ha. You should see me in Primary. I speak terrible German and Sophia has this pained expression on her face the whole time. It is so funny, but not to her. Hailey is such a doll. Smart and kind. Is Peyton not at the PG school? Or is he just missing his after-school friends? Cute, cute kids. Thanks for the update. So fun. I wish I could help out.

First: Kirsten --will forward this to family. Snow College has now been put on the black list by hotmail, so I'm not getting everything to all family members...

What sequester, Tana?

I can just see Phia with her pained expression. Are you still studying German 3 hours a day? She would have the same pained expression with me trying to speak Spanish in my branch. I understood someone's entire story the other day: their sister stopped on Manti Main street to check out a cat on the side of the road. She sort of toed it (yes, I understood that) to see if it was dead and it moved, so then she tried to pick it up and it bit her on the fleshy part of her hand between her thumb and first finger (there was a bit of a demonstration there so I understood that part, too) and then it ran off. So then she went home and called her sister to tell her what happened, the sister then told her to go to the hospital cuz animal bites can be dangerous, but it was late and she washed it and decided to see what it was like in the morning. When she woke up it was very swollen and red so she waited till the clinic opened and went in to see the doctor who sent her immediately to the hospital and said her life was in danger. At the hospital it was touch and go for several days as to if they could save her hand, her arm and even her life. Her lesson learned: no matter how much she loves cats she's not going to try to pick up any unknown cats or any other strange animal ever again. See? I understood all of that in English--oops it was really Spanish, though.

I'll bring the girls home this weekend, but we can't leave till 6 tomorrow night.

any plans up there for anything that I would care to participate in? Need to see Ladd's new paint job and tile job in their kitchen and I've not seen Sam/Alex's house yet, you know...

any movies? let's do that again... any GOOD movies?

Ladd did most of our snow shoveling this winter, but we didn't begin to have as much as Tana

our menus this week

Monday: fried rice

Tuesday: meatloaf, baked potatoes, corn, parslied carrots, brussel sprouts in a butter sauce by Jolly Green Giant, then I went and joined the 3rd ward for Relief Society. They invited our Spanish for tortilla making and zumba. Only me and one other gringa went, no latinas, and I'm really bad at zumba, but the tortillas were great.

Wednesday: Hot dogs and nachos--Morgan went flying to Walmart to get some veggies dogs, then I only had a few nachos with them and then went to an adult ward dinner where we had dutch oven beef, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots and a really good salad a lot like Dad's salad and rolls with butter. It was a school lunchroom setting so they lunch trays from the elementary school --I heard some of our folks saying they were glad of the little compartments cuz now the gravy didn't run into the salad-- and the serving ladies had on hair nets and big aprons as lunch ladies and walked around with trays giving us vanilla or chocolate cake. That was about 10% of the party. Tell you the rest later.

Thursday: I don't know, I'll check the fridge and see what we have for leftovers or maybe make some tomato dumplings.

love you all, kari

kari

Okay... I'll chime in. I heard my baby's heartbeat today! What a relief. I'm 13 weeks and it had a strong little heartbeat. I'm starting to maybe feel a little better. Thank you so much to Marilee. She does so much to help us. And Johnnie has been really amazing too. That spoiled little boy... My mom is here right now and that's so nice. She does a lot too. We are so blessed. I love my Arnoldsen family so much and we're really enjoying being in Orem so close to everyone.

Abby and Elizabeth are doing well in school. They go to Cascade. Abby's in first grade, and Elizabeth is in kindergarten. It's so funny because the principal at Cascade, Mr. Campbell, and I went to Ricks College together. We lived in the same apartment complex and were in the same ward. We also sang in choir together. So when I went to register the girls and saw him there, I screamed and we gave each other a big hug. It was hilarious. And then I used to be in the singles ward with Abby's teacher, Ms. Bailey. And she's taught many of the Arnoldsens.

Vance and Mary are little playmates. They're both so busy, and so cute. Gretchen, Mary is nearly 2 and she's still up in the night. I hope I can fix that problem before the new baby comes.They love being at Grandma's house. They want to go upstairs every chance they can.

Johnnie is doing well. He still loves his job. I hope the sequester doesn't affect us. He's such a good daddy. Whenever he comes home all the kids scream and run to him and jump on him. He loves tickling them and playing with them.

That's all I got.

Sarah

That is so hilarious that you already knew the principal and Abbie's teacher, Sarah. Awesome. People would ask me how I could stand living in my parents basement and I'd say that it wasn't me who had to stand somebody, and that we loved it and the kids especially loved it. I'm so glad you heard the baby's heartbeat. That is a relief. I hope you're starting to feel better.

I think the sequester won't affect Orem security. It's pretty much a federal thing. I don't know how much it will trickle down.

Don't worry, Kirsten. It would be nice to make more, since now we'll probably get too old to ever adopt, but it's OK. I think it's odd that Congress said, "OK, we can't fix the budget, so instead of axing programs or parts of programs that need to go, we'll do this across the board thing, except that it won't affect Congress, just you guys. And the air traffic controllers? They're not really important, so the sequester affects them just as much as the new, super expensive soccer field for the detainees at Guantanamo."

We had zucchini quiche last night, chili the night before, crockpot lasagne the night before.

I love the bed-making routine, Kirsten. Mom told me about the geneology fan-chart activity. Sounds like she enjoyed it.

I'm being lazy with German study lately. I need to get back on it.

I read an article on the internet, Kirsten, about naming a landscape photography business, and the guy wrote a really funny bit of advice. Here it is: (although you can name your business whatever you want, and it'll be fine with me) "You may well be looking for a name that describes what a picture captures or portrays.

But that's not necessarily what your clients are looking for.

Think about this for a moment: if your clients are looking for sports, portraits, landscape, and wildlife photography—are they necessarily looking for poetic descriptions of how the sun majestically paints the mountain tops with astral splendor as it sinks behind the greying horizon in a swirl of brilliant umber fire?

Probably not.

So, just tell people who you are and what you do and make sure that specific audiences receive specific details about what you can do for them, as follows:

Nicola Ferreira: Sports Photography

Nicola Ferreira: Portrait Photography

Nicola Ferreira: Landscape Photography

Nicola Ferreira: Wildlife Photography

and so on. Might this mean having multiple business cards and web pages? Yup. But the expense and hassle of doing this will pay off and allow you to define which market or markets you spend most of your time serving, thereby giving you vital feedback on where to invest future marketing money and time.

This way, there is NO confusion about what you do and your name remains yours, it's not buried under some other business title.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you."

So I totally cribbed the idea from him because I thought it was good, no nonsense advice. Until somebody else convinces me otherwise